Global Warming -- Earth On High Risk- hardly 10 years to get control over climate

Urgent collective actions need to prevent global warming: U.N 

The noble prize-winning intergovernmental panel on climate change issues its gloomy report at a meeting in Incheon, south Korea. 

In the 728-page document, the U.N. organization detailed how earth’s weather, health and ecosystems would be in better shape if the world’s leader could somehow limit future human-caused warming to just 0.9-degree Fahrenheit (a half degree Celsius) from now, instead of the globally agreed-upon of 1.8-degree F (1-degree c). 

Before understanding the whole report lets understand what exactly is global warming? 

Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are dying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It’s becoming clear that humans have caused most of the post century’s warming by releasing heat-trapping gases, their levels are higher now than in the last 650,000 years. 

Global warming is causing a set of changes to the Earth’s climate, or in long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. It's changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely upon. 

Greenhouse effect 

The “greenhouse effect” is the warming that happens when certain gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap heat. These gases let in light but keep heat from escaping, like the glass walls of a greenhouse. 

First, sunlight shines onto the Earth’s surface, where it is absorbed and then it is radiated back into the atmosphere as heat. In the atmosphere, “greenhouse” gases trap some of this heat, and the rest escape into space. The more greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere, the more heat gets trapped the more earth’s temperature has risen.  

The Report

The report stated that there is an urgent need to prevent an extra single degree if heat could make a life-or-death difference in the next few decades for multitude of people and ecosystems on this fast-warming planet.  

Meeting the tougher to reach goal could result in around 420 million fewer people being exposed to exceptional heat. The deadly heat waves that hit India and Pakistan in 2015. 

Water ecosystems are also at high risk, the coral reefs will disappear soon the report stated. 

What can be the severe consequences? 

1- Plenty of people would suffer from lack of water. 

2- There would be more deaths with smog, heat and infectious diseases. 

3- Sea's water level would rise up nearly 4 inches (0.1 meters) less. 

4- Half as many animals with back bones and plants would lose the majority of their habitats. 

5- There would be more downpours droughts.  

6- The west Antarctica ice sheet might not kick into irreversible melting. 

7- Coral reefs are vanishing due to high temperature of sea water. As coral reefs are the main key factor of water ecosystem.  That further will make earth inhabitable even for humans. 

What should be done? 

As global warming ruining the earth and  every single country should be willing to take actions to curb this earth life threatening issue. 

 The more ambitious goal of slightly less warming would require immediate, strict laws to cut in emissions of heat- trapping gases. Radical changes in the energy fields are also required. Control deforestation, use of natural resources with sustainability, and most importantly awareness campaigns would play vital role to prevent global warming.  

What they have done? 

In 2010, international negotiators adopted a goal limiting warming to 2-degree C (3.6 degrees F) since pre-industrial times, it's called the 2 – degree goal.  

In 2015, when the nations of the world agreed to the historic Paris climate agreement, they set dual goals: 2-degree C and a more demanding target of 1.5-degree C from pre –industrial times. The 1.5 was at urging of vulnerable countries that called 2 degree a death sentence. 

The world has already warmed 1-degree C since pre-industrial times, so the talk is really about the difference of another half degree C or 0.9 degrees F from now. There is now definitive way to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 above pre –industrial levels,”  

The U.N report requested report said. More than 90 scientists wrote the reports, which is based on more than 6,000 peer reviews. 

Global warming likely to reach 1.5 degrees C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate, “ the report states. 

Deep in the report, scientists said less than 2 percent of 529 of their calculated possible future scenarios kept warming below the 1.5 goal without the temperature going above that and somehow coming back down in the future. 

The pledges nations made in the Paris agreement in 2015 are clearly insufficient to limit warming to 1.5 in any way. 

A way forward 

To control warming and the lower temperature goal, the world needs “rapid and far-reaching" changes in every system, land use, city and industrial design, transportation and building use.  

Annual carbon dioxide pollution levels are still rising and would have to drop by about half by 2030 and then be near zero by 2050. Emission of other greenhouse gases, such as methane, also will have to drop. 

Switching away from fossil fuels like coal, oil, gas to do this could be more expensive than the less ambitious goal, but it would clean the air of other pollutants, and that would have the side benefit of avoiding more than 100 million premature deaths through this century. So, the government and people should act quickly and strongly. If actions are not taken it will take the planet in to an unprecedented climate future.